Electronic payments are becoming more common place for settling both consumer and business to business transactions.
The most common electronic payment mechanism in the consumer world is a payment card such as a credit card, charge card, or debit card. Generally, payment cards are issued by an operator of a card payment system such as American Express or Diners Club (sometimes called a closed loop system), or by a bank or financial institution under licensing from a bank card brand provider such as Visa or Mastercard (formerly bank card associations).
In a card payment system, the financial institution issuing the card handles authorizations and all aspects of the transaction and settles payment with the merchant/vendor and the consumer/cardholder. More specifically, when a consumer pays for a purchase using a credit card issued as part of a card payment system, the merchant/vendor's point of sale terminal is used to obtain, from the issuer, an authorization for the payment amount. The authorization represents a guarantee that the issuer will pay the authorized amount. Once authorization is obtained the merchant/vendor can provide the goods or services without concern as to whether the consumer will pay for the goods or services because consumer credit risk is on the issuer that provided the authorization (guarantee of payment), not the merchant/vendor that obtained the authorization (guarantee of payment). To settle the transaction, the issuer pays the merchant/vendor the authorized amount less a transaction fee. The transaction fee is established by contract between the merchant/vendor and the card payment system operator/issuer at the time the merchant/vendor opens its merchant account with the close loop system operator/issuer.
When a bank or financial institution issues a payment card under licensing from a bank card brand provider such as Visa or Mastercard, the bank is referred to as the Issuing Bank. To accept payment by payment card issued under license from a bank card brand provider, a merchant/vendor opens a merchant account with a bank of financial institution that is also licensed by the bank card brand provider. Bank at which the merchant/vendor has its merchant account is called the Acquiring Bank. The Issuing Bank and the Acquiring Bank may be different banks.
When a consumer pays for a purchase using a payment card licensed under a bank card brand provider, the vendor's point of sale terminal is used to access the brand provider's settlement network and obtain an authorization for the payment amount. The authorization represents a guarantee that the Issuing Bank will fund the authorized amount. Once authorization is obtained, the transaction is processed. More specifically, the Acquiring Bank funds the vendor's Merchant Account with the amount of the transaction less a transaction fee that is established by contract between the Acquiring Bank and the merchant/vendor. The Acquiring Bank obtains payment from the Issuing Bank through the brand provider's settlement network and pays a fee, called an interchange fee, to the brand provider. The brand provider keeps a portion of the interchange fee and credits a portion of the interchange fee back to the Issuing Bank.
In the consumer world, card payment has grown dramatically since the first card payment systems were introduced in the late 1940s and 1950s (Diners Club in 1949, American Express in 1959) and the first association branded cards were introduced in 1966 (BankAmericard which is now VISA, a card brand provider, and InterBank Card which is now MasterCard, a card brand provider). One of the primary drivers of growth has been that merchant/vendors are willing to accept card payments and pay the corresponding transaction fee to eliminate credit risk of the individual consumer purchasing from the merchant/vendor. Once a transaction is authorized, payment to the merchant/vendor is guaranteed.
Recently, card issuers, in particular the bank card brand providers and their participating banks have been marketing card payments for business to business transactions. In general, an Issuing Bank issues a purchase card to a business and the business uses the card to pay vendors. Vendors must have a Merchant Account with an Acquiring bank and pay the applicable fees as determined by the Acquiring Bank. The Acquiring bank pays an interchange fee on the transaction, at least part of which is paid to the Issuing Bank. Currently purchasing card payments represent less than 4% of the business to business payments in the United States. It is speculated that purchasing card payments are not being adopted for business to business transactions as rapidly as adoption for consumer transactions for at least two reasons. First, most business to business payments are payments in the ordinary course of an ongoing relationship between the vendor and the payer and the vendor sees little credit risk in being paid. As such, the vendor sees little advantage of receiving a guarantee of payment at authorization, and while many vendors may be willing to pay a small transaction fee for the convenience of immediate payments, the guarantee of immediate payment is not enough to justify payment of the high fixed transaction fee charged by the Acquiring Bank. Second, purchase card payments are difficult for both the payer and the vendor to reconcile in their respective accounts payable and accounts receivable accounting systems without at least duplicating manual entry of at least some payment/remittance information in multiple systems.
Even though there has been little adoption of purchase cards and card payments for business to business transactions, business to business payers still seek electronic payment solutions to lower costs associated with traditional check payments, and possible generate revenue from, their accounts payable.
In view of the foregoing, what is needed is an improved electronic payment and remittance system that provides a flexible fee structure so that fees may be tailored to the value provided to a vendor for the convenience of receipt of electronic payment and rich remittance information; and an improved electronic payment and remittance system that provides a means of estimating such value and establishing a transaction fee structure commensurate therewith.